iBall Slide i701

Build quality feels very good n+ The tablet has a soft touch/rubbery coating on the back and sides, which prevents slipping when held n+ OTG cable included n+ Windows 8.1 (Core) OS - this makes it a full-fledged Windows desktop! n+ Subscription to single-user Office 365 Personal for 1 year (this is itself a Rs. 3300 subscription otherwise) n+ Free goodies like HDMI cable, and 3 covers. Comes with a screen guard fitted to the screen, a velvet-like pouch for the tablet, and a micro-fiber cloth for the screen. n+ Accepts a micro-SD card, so you can store as much as you wish (note that although the tablet is advertised as having 16 GB storage built-in, the formatted capacity is 14.46 GB, of which 5.08 GB goes to a recovery partition, about 5 GB for the Windows OS itself, leaving 4 GB free). nn- Screen resolution is physically 1024x600. Metro apps cannot run at this resolution, so in software, the resolution is increased to 1280x768, resulting in fonts looking a little fuzzy/hard to read. n- Does not have a physical/capacitive start button to open the start screen. You need to swipe in from the right margin to show the charms bar. n- When held in portrait mode, viewing angles are extremely narrow, and even little tilting results in colours washing out. This is present even in landscape mode, but is not as severe as portrait. n- Tablet came with a user named 'ii' already pre-configured, and the tablet named as 'i'. I performed a Windows Recovery to restore Windows from the recovery partition, and this took me through the OOBE (out-of-box-experience) setup process, as expected. nnIn all, great value at the price. Just be aware that the screen resolution and display angles may be an annoyance. Even so, at the price it is offered, it is tremendous value.

Got this device delivered in 2 days flat. Kudos to FLIPKART. With a price this low, I had my doubts, but after using the tab for a couple of days I can confidently say that THIS IS A BLOODY GOOD DEVICE!!! nnLets go over the PROs and CONs now.nn PROs first:nn1. A quad core cpu with 1gb ram combo is pretty fast by itself. But add the latest updates of windows 8.1 to the mix, and this thing can FLY. The app switching is smooth and fast, the animations are slick, there's no lag whatsoever in everyday usage. This is what matters the most if you ask me.nn2. THE WINDOWS APP SUPPORT. With a number of good looking and fast apps coming pre-installed, and a ton of others available from the included STORE, you can get an app for literally everything. The touch-friendly modern apps look great on a tablet interface, while the older desktops apps are not too bad either.nn3. I personally use this tab for educational purposes. So if you are looking for something along the lines of ebook readers, go for this instead. You get very good reading apps, like kindle, nook, etc. And also other useful apps, for maybe nate-taking(OneNote), scientific and programming calculators, dictionary and thesaurus(the AED app is fantastic, highly recommended).nn4. For the digital artists out there, there is FOTOR, photoshop, paint, autoCAD, sketchbook,etc. Be it editting those selfies before posting them on facebook, or just creating some beautiful art, on-the-go, this tab can take care of things.nn5. USB OTG and HDMI support. Connect pendrives, mouse, keyboard, gamepad, etc to the tablet, or even connect the tab itself to the TV.nnWhat more do you want, man??!!nnNah,just kidding. There is actually quite a lot I would have wanted in this device.nBut before reading the following cons, remind yourself that THIS COSTS 5000 BUCKS:nn1. The display. Its horrible. A 7 inch piece of $#1t. Probably the worst screen I've ever seen. On any device. The viewing angles will make you shriek the first time you turn on the tab. Even tilting it by 5-10 degrees kills the view. To make it so damn cheap, this is the BIGGEST compromise iBall made. But then again, if you hold it correctly, it doesn't matter all that much. The texts appear crisp. Especially on the ebook reader apps. You can easily switch to two-page view, and still read comfortably.nn2. The battery life is not that good. 3-4 hours screen-on time with heavy to moderate usage with wifi on. But if you are mainly reading, or listening to music, it lasts a lot longer.nn3. THE SCREEN AGAIN. ITS JUST SO BAD... DAMN YOU iBALL.nn4. Getting a good touch-friendly browser on this tab is hard. It comes with IE installed, but who uses that right. I switched to UC BROWSER, but even that failed to impress me. And chrome is not exactly touch friendly, although you can still use it.nn5. Now the big one. NO GAMING. Like nothing. You can try installing full pc games, but the low fps makes pretty much everything unplayable. I tried playing on the PPSSPP emulator(Google it!) too. Some games ran, albeit with low-ish fps. But they were still playable. If you desperately need to GAME, stick with the basic touch based games, or HALO: Spartan Assault maybe. But let me tell you, you'll be seeing the LOW BATTERY WARNING before you can say WHY IS THIS GAME SO SLOW. LOLnnThere you go guys, 5 pros and cons. nnSo in conclusion, I think I would recommend this thing to people who already have a good phone or computer, and will use this as their secondary device. Because this tab is exactly that. Imagine laying back after a tiring day to check up on facebook/twitter, go over the news, read a good book, and post a few heavily-edited pictures maybe?! This tab shines in all those departments. BRILLIANTLY that too. At 5000, this tab is indeed a steal.